The Syrian army has reached the last ISIS-held town on the road to its besieged garrison in the east, a monitoring group said on Friday. Government forces are on the outskirts of al-Sukhna, some 70 kilometers northeast of the famed ancient city of Palmyra, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The town is the last on the desert road to the eastern city of Deir Ezzor, where a government garrison has held out under siege by the ISIS group since early 2015. Al-Sukhna and the oil and gas ...

Damage to the World Heritage site of Palymra by ISIS militants may be less than earlier believed, Syria's antiquities chief said on Friday. Maamoun Abdulkarim told Reuters that video from Palmyra after it was recaptured by the Syrian army has shown less damage than archaeologists feared when pictures emerged at the beginning of the year suggesting ISIS had smashed more monuments. Under heavy Russian air cover, the Syrian army and allied militias drove the jihadist group out of the UNESCO world ...

Syria’s opposition refused Thursday to hail the Damascus regime’s recapture of Palmyra from ISIS militants, calling both sides terrorists and saying it was like watching cartoon characters Tom and Jerry. The High Negotiating Committee (HNC), the main opposition group at UN-sponsored peace talks in Geneva, recalled that the historic city has now been seized from ISIS militants twice in the last year. “As for congratulating (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad, if we do then we ...

ISIS militants withdrew from much of the Syrian oasis city of Palmyra overnight, a monitor said Thursday, but government forces paused before entering its ravaged ancient ruins because of mines. Russian-backed Syrian troops pushed into a western neighborhood of the city late on Wednesday after fierce clashes with the militants. By Thursday morning, ISIS had withdrawn to residential neighborhoods in the east of the city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. “ISIS withdrew from most ...